Living Streets Bournville and Stirchley - Safe Routes to School and More

[ShivajiShiva]

With a few local families and some helpful transport wonks, I am
pulling together a campaign for accessible routes to link a
number of god cycle/walking routes in and around Bournville and in the
process create:

(i) Safe Routes to School in Bournville;

(ii) better links to traffic free routes such as the canal towpath and
the Rea Valley trail; and

(iii) improvements to make streets safer and more livable.

To get a sense of what we are aiming for, see:

www.livingstreets.org.uk/what-we-do/projects/community-street-audits

or the Space for Cycling Campaign as described here:

• pushbikes.org.uk/space4cycling

and here: www.cyclinguk.org/campaign/space-for-cycling

Essentially, we want conditions on our roads where anyone, of any age
or ability, feels able to walk or cycle safely, conveniently and enjoyably for
any local journey. Bournville is already a great place to live and
given BVT's environmental commitment and longstanding progressive
stance, I hope that this is a good area in which to demonstrate what
Birmingham as a whole could be like with good quality transport
infrastructure of the sort proposed by Living Streets and Space for Cycling.

Pushbikes (Birmingham Cycle Campaign), Cycling UK and Living Streets are supporting this and following recent meetings:

• we have a list of some potential improvements as a starting point,

• a friendly transport engineer has offered to draw up some plans and other volunteers have offered to help where they can, and

• following concerns raised by a Bournville mum, a petition (twitter.com/MNetBirmingham/status/793413299983491074) to trial improvements to the southern end of Oak Tree Lane will be considered by the City Council's Highways Department.

Before doing more we would like to gather more views on how Bournville, Stirchley and surrounding areas can be made safer and easier to walk or cycle around.

Please post your ideas to this thread.

If you think this is a good idea and know others who would be interested, please pass on the request above.

Thanks

Shivaji

twitter.com/pushpedalscoot/status/794337499875307520

A 'safe' crossing point on the Cadbury factory side of Bournville Lane at the Linden Road intersection. - looking four ways is a nightmare. I have seen too many near misses involving children and vehicles.

Thanks for contributing. You are absolutely right, I find it difficult to use that junction on my cycle commute and see a lot of confused people and too many near misses.

Several people have mentioned how difficult they find it to cross Bournville Lane safely with their children, both on the school run and at other times.

Others have mentioned the difficulty they have getting in and out of side roads such as Beech Road because of the poor visibility around the corner and the speed at which people drive along Bournville Lane.

Another concern raised with me is the speed of traffic along Linden Road and the fact that a minority of drivers do not reliably stop at the traffic lights - even those opposite the school entrance. The same is true of the zebra crossing on the factory side of Bournville Road.

Does any of this chime with your experience?

Anything that makes our streets and roads safer for ourselves and our children, especially at school start/end time, would be great.

Although in Stirchley, rather than Bournville, I do cross Mary Vale Road (the Stirchley side) on a regular basis and it is a horrible road to cross, especially at school drop off and collection. It's only a matter of time before someone's child is run over.
People are driving too fast, there are a number of junctions for vehicles to enter and exit, and sometimes the presence of large vehicles (due to the trade businesses on Charlotte Road) causes problems.
Ideally could do with a crossing point there. Maybe between Charlotte/Lea House and the hump back bridge?

The junction where Mary Vale Road meets Linden road is always bad to exit if you're trying to turn right or go straight over. Surprised there aren't more accidents there.
Similar can be said of where Bournville Lane meets Linden Road, although the presence of the traffic lights on Linden Road does make it bit easier to get on to Linden Road, when they are on red.

Where Beaumont Road meets Franklin, people park on the corner, blocking the junction exit. I understand why they do this, as parking on Beaumont and Franklin must be a nightmare, but it really impairs visibility.

A lot of the problems in the local area, and in other areas (e.g. Kings Heath) are caused by people driving too fast and not considering other people, especially on roads where there are terrace houses, meaning cars usually parked on both sides of the road - people should really tuck in to factor in where the driver in opposite direction is going to be able to go, but they often don't. This is not easy to fix though.

BVT here (though not Bournville itself). Would this street audit / plan also include ways of making it easy and safe for wheelchair users to get around the area? Things like regular dropped kerbs, pathways with level surfaces and not obstructed, wide enough walkways etc, making sure people who use a power chair or mobility scooter can travel on the road safely if they need to.

Another BVT resident who is a very good friend of mine and a wheelchair user, does find it hard to get around this area sometimes. I'd really appreciate this being a consideration in any plans.

I agree about Bournville Lane, and I hope these plans go well. Thanks for looking into this!

Thanks both, those are really helpful comments.

Claire24R, having done the school run to Stirchley Primary School, I know what you mean about crossing Mary Vale Road at that end.

Cootlings, we are keen to consider improvements for wheelchair users too. Dropped kerbs and similar changes also make life easier for people with push-chairs/buggies and others.

Thanks again,

My son walks to Kings Norton Boys school from Franklin road along with a lot of children from the surrounding area and if he has to go in early or come back a bit later due to after school clubs and the lollipop lady isn't there it is a nightmare crossing the main road by James hairdressers especially as the bus stops obscure the view if a bus has stopped for passengers. The lollipop lady who works there is lovely but only there for specific times so some kind of permanent crossing there would be great.

Have you contacted your Councillors?

Thanks both,

bournvillemama01, I suspect that safe crossings will be a common issue on this thread. The area you mention does sound tricky.

TwoAndTwoEqualsChaos, Cllrs Huxtable, Locke and Sealey are each aware of this thread.

The message below is posted here with the agreement of Cllr Locke.

-- Forwarded message --
From: Councillor Mary Locke
Date: 8 November 2016 at 20:02
Subject: RE: local.mumsnet.com/Talk/local_birmingham_sutton_coldfield/2771423-Living-Streets-Bournville-and-Stirchley-Safe-Routes-to-School-and-More
To: Shivaji Shiva

Thank you for email i
Think this is an excellent idea
It helps families with children use alternative safe methods to school

Councillor Mary Locke Bournville ward

Sent from my Windows Phone

For completeness, my response:

Thank you Councillor Locke

I am glad to hear you support the idea. Achieving any concrete change
will not be straightforward and those involved will need the support
of local councillors to secure meaningful practical changes.

Are you happy for me to post your message to the Mumsnet thread, or
would you prefer to contribute yourself?

Thanks again,

Shivaji

Other Councillors will no doubt respond in due course. Cllr Huxtable has already been supportive.

An interesting and relevant piece in the Evening Standard today:

--

Campaigners have called for “mini Holland” walking and cycling schemes to be introduced in towns across Britain after the first London pilot scheme produced dramatic results.

Infrastructure campaigner Simon Munk said: “It’s very clear that this is a replicable approach and other areas can do it. There is not some kind of ‘magic dust’ that means only Walthamstow can do it. This is what is called ‘traffic evaporation’ in action.

“It doesn’t cause chaos, despite what some people say. It’s capable of making our town centres and city centres, and communities where people live and work, work much better.”

--

See: www.standard.co.uk/news/london/mini-holland-scheme-in-walthamstow-hailed-as-major-success-as-traffic-falls-by-half-a3389936.html for the full article.